A CHIEF fire officer broke down into tears yesterday as he remembered his New York counterpart and personal friend.

Cleveland Chief Fire Officer John Doyle was among the crowds who attended Stockton's memorial service outside the Town Hall. He was overcome with emotion as his thoughts turned to Pete Ganci, the New York Chief Fire Officer who perished with around 500 of his crews when the World Trade Centre collapsed.

Chief Doyle remembered his friend as a "typical New Yorker with a super sense of humour."

He said: "I first met him five or six years ago and he came over a couple of times to speak at our conferences. He was supposed to come over in November.

"New York fire fighters are very tough, very professional and quite hard-bitten and world-weary. He was a typical, professional firefighter and a fun guy to be with."

Chief Ganci began his career in the tough Bronx area and was used to dealing with arson, which makes up many of the 25,000-strong brigade's one million annual calls.

He had around 35 years' experience and often spoke on tackling fires in high-rise buildings, one of the brigade's areas of expertise.

Chief Doyle said his counterpart would never have dreamed of entering the World Trade Centre if it had not been for the civilians trapped inside.

He said that because of the close contact between brigades nationwide, every firefighter in Britain has been hit by the tragedy.

"The fire service is a very small family, and firefighters have a common bond," he said. "I don't think there's a firefighter in the UK who didn't wonder how they would have dealt with the situation and didn't empathise totally with the Americans.

"Watching the situation on TV and knowing that a lot of firefighters would be killed was horrendous."